The Dole Awards #4 – Best Supporting Layoff

This award is in recognition of a company with major layoffs, that by themself aren’t crippling, however when compiled with the already weakened economy will do severe damage and will serve to breathe more despair into this already crumbling economy and keep this recession continuing strong.

And the winner is …

#4 The Las Vegas Sands Corp Company (LVS)
12/23/08
11,500


This one is a bit of a dark horse. They doubled up Microsoft, but didn’t crack the top tier of layoffs based on the numbers. According to forbes.com laid off 11,500 people from the Las Vegas Sands on December 23, 2008. Classic Christmas style layoffs here and that really helped them get over the top and beat companies like Caterpillar and AT&T for this award. There is nothing that will ruin your Christmas and subsequent new year than a pink slip on the 23rd. Classic move to try and soften the blow of a happy christmas. In my opinion not enough companies use this tactic.

The Las Vegas Sands Corporation owns six properties in all, two of these properties being in Las Vegas, one being the Venetian and the other being the Palazzo. The beauty of this set of layoffs is two fold.

First we have the layoffs in America. They boast that this is less than 2% of the layoffs on the strip, and The Sands Corp. have been congratulated for hanging on so long while other Resorts and Casinos began cutting jobs much earlier in the recession. However, with these layoffs coming as well as those that will undoubtedly be in the future, there are those that are worried about the region being able to bounce back as a tourist destination. This is amazing to me because that’s all that Las Vegas is. Without the casino’s it’s just a desert that nobody wants to go to. With all these cuts and the public fear of spending money we are looking at places that are tourist destinations that will be hit incredibly hard and will be recessed even after the rest of us start to pull ourselves out of this economic slide. The concern is that all these cuts will cause service to suffer and hurt the regions ability to bring in tourist. UNLV Gaming Research Director David Schwartz is quoted on klas-tv.com saying “So what if someone comes here on one of these really good deals and finds that the place is a mess. They are probably not going to come back when they have enough money to travel anywhere they want and pay top price.”

The other half of this equation is the international side of things. The Sands Corp. has stopped construction in Portuguese territory. This will halt a project that is worth 12 Billion dollars. Additionally, they have put on hold some operations and projects in China. Since I read “The World Is Flat” I understand how important this is in our society. We are now not only dealing with these layoffs and this roll back of spending in the state, but also in our global economy. We have seen recently that the rest of the world has started to falter since we’ve been in this recession and this is just another level of that. With everyone in America trying to hold onto whatever money they can get their hands on, this is going to cause ripples throughout the world. Right away we see that these layoffs affect Asia and Europe, and this was only one resort chain.

So 11,500 is not a catastrophic amount of layoffs in the grand scheme of things, but its domestic and global implications get it an inaugural Dole Award. Congratulations Sands Corporation, welcome to the top 5.

The Dole Awards

It has been a crazy end of Aught Eight and a beginning of Aught Nine. There have been some somewhere north of 400k layoffs since November 1st according to Forbes.com. There aren’t any jobs out there to be had; NY State has upped the weeks of unemployment benefits from 20 to 33. People now have unemployment for over half a year. This is incredibly helpful because there are no jobs to be had right now, and frankly, I like living in my apartment, so thanks NY State Government! Any way you look at it, things are frightening out there for people who are trying to make it through the daily grind. It’s hard out there for every person, whether you’re on the dole or not. There are very few jobs that offer stability. Even jobs in entertainment that are usually “recession proof” are feeling the impact. The way people spend money is changing, we’ll find out if it’s only for the time being or if it will be for the long haul.

This can be a terribly stressful time as well as a brutally depressing.

The dole isn’t here to remind us about how much this all sucks. It’s here to show us that we aren’t all alone in this (or at least you aren’t alone, I sometimes still feel alone)

It being February, and I being the obvious expert in unemployment blogging, I have been swept up in the awards season and have chosen my top 5 favorite layoffs from the end of ’08 and ’09 and compiled the first ever “Dole Awards”

#5 – Microsoft
1/22/09
5000 jobs

This one is very close to my heart. The reason I was actually laid off was because the company I was working for a company that was doing a show for Microsoft, but as it was apparent that there were going to be layoffs, and the fact that spending any money while people are getting laid became unpopular, they cancelled the show my company was working on. With the cancellation of this show, my company could no longer keep up the salaries of everyone. So with the lack of money and work, I was laid off, might as well just call it 5,001…

So what brought this up to the top 5 was the fact that they are laying off 5,000 people. It’s so low because they aren’t doing in one fell swoop, but they are crushing 5,000 over the next year. This is the first mass layoff in Microsoft’s history.

I know 5,000 isn’t a lot, and this is a bit of a sentimental pick, but what really sold me on Microsoft was something I read while doing my research. I read that Microsoft, amidst all their layoffs and cuts, are actually hiring more people over this next year. Seriously, you lay off Five THOUSAND people, and you start hiring other people? Don’t think you could maybe holler at some of those pinks with a transfer form, or perhaps a “request for resume” from another department? So we now have a bunch of people who weren’t necessarily “bad” at their job, that are now out of that job, and people who may not have had a job previously, now have jobs. Everyone follow? This seems backwards to me. Don’t get me wrong, I totally agree with that second part, but the first part is kind of bugging me out. I’m just saying; people who have jobs aren’t leaving those jobs by choice. If they are; then they are not smart, and probably not fit for work anyway. I’m just bringing it up.

My resume can be found on Monster.com

Things we learned during week 3

1. The Apple store on 5th Ave. is open 24 hours
2. I, sometimes, take Whiffle Ball to seriously
3. The Apple store on 5th Ave. will give you a genius bar appointment at 1 am.
4. The employees at The Apple store on 5th Ave. will then talk down to you when you show up at 1 pm, like a normal self respecting human being.
5. In our current recession, there are a lot of foreign people looking for rooms
6. The guy holding the laptop handling the genius bar at the Mac store on 5th Ave. is a condescending jerk.
7. Chasing that freelance money can be a very annoying process
8. The Celtics don't have to play a whole game to beat teams that are only pretty good
9. The Hell Gate Social is a very dark place, even in the daytime
10 Randy Pan the Goat boy can sometimes offend women
11. The bailout bill got passed, but it won't help me find a new job.
12. It will however help save my teacher friend's job.
13. The guy who played Homer on the Colbert Report hated "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
14. It would have been much better for me to lose my job during the election (I already sort of knew that)
15. $5 any footlong is back, and that is glorious
16. Sometimes, when you try to phone in a blog entry, it ends up taking 3 days to write

A Spring Day in Mid February

It's been a beautiful week in New York City. The magical "February Thaw" came beginning this Saturday and has lasted through Tuesday's 60 degree afternoon. It's been a wonderful few days to live and enjoy the city. I even took time out on Monday of this week to enjoy the beautiful afternoon and get outside of the apartment that I have been holed up in for the winter.

Monday was wonderful. It was a pleasure to go out and run my errands Monday afternoon. I treated myself to some pizza on the Upper East Side and enjoyed walking the extra couple blocks to the bus instead of the subway. It was hard to imagine this could get much better. However, while I was getting my pizza, a good friend sent me a text message asking if I would like to meet him for some Whiffle Ball in Central Park. My affinity for Whiffle Ball is one of my many quirks. If I could make a living playing Whiffle Ball, I would in a heartbeat. Sadly however, I cannot, so I am stuck now on the dole.

Needless to say, I was elated to meet my friend in Central Park for a pickup game of the Whiff. However, this is not a happy story about how my curve ball won me more bragging rights among my adversaries. No, the dole has taken from me things many things that I care desperately about. This one boiling down to my health and well being. Being unemployed hasn't caused me physical pain and suffering itself, but it has put me in a predicament by removing my little bit of insurance known as, well ... health insurance.

So, as I'm torching my friend in Whiffle Ball I hurt my elbow a little. I'm not sure when this happened originally, but this originally happened to me sometime in my early twenties. This has never been something very serious except a bit sore here and there, however, now that I'm out and on my own I am beginning to worry a bit. I am someone who loves being active. I play in coed sports leagues in Manhattan, I try to get out and play pickup games with friend in the parks, and I like to try to stay healthy by running around and being active. But now based on the need to ice my elbow after a half hour in the park on Monday, I'm slightly terrified of actually hurting myself. I can't afford Tommy John surgery right now! If I were to get a little sick, I could handle that right now. I can afford a bit of a doctors visit, but I certainly couldn't handle a trip to the hospital. This is a serious concern for me. I have been playing touch football recently and have 2 weeks left. I'm frightened I could twist my knee or land on my wrist or shoulder wrong. You can't just walk off an ACL tear!

Some might say that I'm being paranoid, but this world is a dangerous place. I know someone who tore his knee up and needed surgery cause he slipped on ice. ICE! do you have any idea how much ice is in this city? I'm terrified! I could get hit by a cab, or an air conditioner could fall out of window.

This is a frightening place if you don't have insurance. I have begun working on a classified for craigslist just in case..

SWM Seeks med student/ surgical resident to meet for drinks and some NSA surgery. Your pic gets mine. No bbw

Day 10: The end of the beginning...

It has been 2 full weeks now without full time unemployment. I'm not sure how people survive like this.

Over the past couple years I have been introduced to a lot of contractors that work in the entertainment industry on a freelance basis. It took me a little while to figure out that this industry is one that lends itself to freelance contractors. This entire industry; from film, television, and theater/events is all dictated by projects. Freelancers work on their current project while they are looking forward to their next project and billing their previous project. Now that I am a freelancer, I have started this process. I am now chasing the money that is owed me for the previous project. I sent my invoice in and now get to wait for it to be deposited into the bank account. I hope it gets dumped into my checking account before I have to start following up with those who I just worked for. So, now I need to start working on my current project and looking forward to my next project. The trouble here is, I don't have a current project or a "next" project. My only projects are getting the money that is owed me, and find a new gig. This is a concept that terrifies me. Frankly, all my friends who are freelance contractors should be terrified as well. The events industry is slowing down at breakneck pace. It seems every couple days I hear about shows getting canceled or the budgets getting cut. This side of the industry is taking a lot more heat from the economic decline than it really should be. It's falling victim to perception instead of reality. The events industry is something that at a glance looks frivolous because it's a lot of money spent to hold business meetings. So now instead of spending money on these events, companies are going to be allocating this money to other sections of their company. This will undoubtedly save a few jobs in those companies for a short period of time, however, will crush those outside of the company who relied on its events.

What have I learned over the first 2 weeks of the dole?

This is going to get a lot worse before it gets any better.

Did he say millions, or billions?

Perhaps it's jsut the way that I am looking at life now, but I find it incredibly interesting to watch the conference I'm working today.

Normally I had found these types of meetings incredibly boring, however, this time around I am simply tickled to see what everyone has to say.

Today I am working an investors/ bankers meeting for a global company. They are going over numbers from 2008 and what they are expecting in the first half of 2009. They continue to talk in millions, and even billions, of dollars dealing with profits and loss. All the investors have been asking about how they plan to recoup or deal with the losses as well as their strategy for surviving the economic crisis. These executives were basically presented like targets in front of the investors and bankers to be poked, prodded, and passive aggressively beaten with questions about the company and it's choices over the last year. The thing I found most interesting was the plan they had for reducing debt. The plan wasn't so much the most interesting part, but the fact that the plan would only reduce the debt by 2.5 million. This is from 17 million to 14.5 million, or so, and that's only if the plan works exactly how they plan it to.

There were 60 investor in this room. That's not even 100 k per investor this year, and that's if it's spread out eventually. AS WELL AS if the plan works!

It's obvious that all kinds of companies are in trouble in this climate. There is no better proof of this fact, perhaps ironically, that the Technical Director for this particular company's investors meeting is himself, on the dole...

TV in my hotel room bores me

There are only 30 channels on my Hotel room cable. These include cnn, cnbc, bloomberg, espn, yes, usa, TNT, and HBO. These options have officialy bored me.

On top of that, the bar is closed because this is a conference center, and not a real hotel. There are only 3 people staying here tonight; because of that, all the amenities aren't up to my usual standard.

Freelancing is rough . . .